Women This Week: A Wall of Women

Women hold placards in a solidarity rally in support of "Women's Wall" organised by the women in the southern state of Kerala to pledge for gender equality in the southern state.
REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post, covering December 30 to January 5, was compiled with support from Rebecca Turkington.

Women hold placards in a solidarity rally in support of "Women's Wall" organised by the women in the southern state of Kerala to pledge for gender equality in the southern state.
REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

Blog Post

Blog posts represent the views of CFR fellows and staff and not those of CFR, which takes no institutional positions.

Five Million Women Protest in India

On New Year’s Day, millions of women in Kerala, India joined a human chain demonstration stretching nearly 400 miles to support women’s right to enter the Sabarimala Temple, in response to violent protests against a Supreme Court decision outlawing the temple’s exclusion of women. Tuesday’s collective action for women’s rights was supported by the ruling party in Kerala, known as the Left Democratic Front, together with more than 170 political and civil society organizations. Standing shoulder to shoulder, women protesters pledged to support ‘renaissance’ values and reform. This mass demonstration builds on a growing wave of activism in India, including the explosion of the #MeToo movement across the country this fall, which led to the resignation of top figure in politics and journalism. Earlier in the year, protests across the country following a tragic rape case pushed the government to introduce reforms addressing violence against women.